Blackjack Beats by Acuity

[raw]
made by Acuity for LD 41 (JAM)

Screenshot.png

Description: Blackjack as a rhythm game! There are still a few issues to iron out - I set the sync to be a specific value that works for me, but I don't know if it will work for everyone. Some cases aren't dealt with yet (dealer blackjack isn't checked until player is done playing).

Controls: Press z and x to the beat to get points, and play blackjack!

Notes: This was originally intended as a compo entry. I couldn't fix a lot of the bugs in time, so I delayed to the Jam deadline. All the art and music was created by me within the 72 hours. I definitely want to keep working on this. There's much more I can add. Song will be uploaded to my Soundcloud soon.

Ratings

Overall 1081th 2.827⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Fun 1006th 2.788⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 789th 3.115⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Theme 641th 3.538⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1023th 2.5⭐ 28🧑‍⚖️
Audio 313th 3.5⭐ 27🧑‍⚖️
Humor 962th 2.042⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1081th 2.432⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 37🗳️ 28🗨️

Feedback

gogu
27. Apr 2018 · 05:14 UTC
Good origin music, I feel comfortable for the beat and music fitting. And the Game is almost completed in my thought. The element you choosed is very clever. Mature Backjack gameplay, and your specialize of music make the game working very well!

Bad point: the gameplay combine is a little stiff, beat is not get relation with the Blackjack game results almostly. And the strategy of Backjack is limited by beats. And also, I can't get the obviouse message while I win a Blackjack turn.

We choosed the rhythm + card combine too, although we could not write a music. Welcome to play: https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/41/rhythm-card-hero
Derek Wilson
30. Apr 2018 · 06:37 UTC
I kinda wish that the rhythm aspect had more to do with the gameplay than just limiting when I can press buttons. (or maybe it does and I just didn't notice). Overall, I think the strongest aspect is how well you embraced the theme.

Music had a good beat and I was able to find the rhythm easy enough to time the buttons. Glad to see you were able to get it done!
🎤 Acuity
30. Apr 2018 · 06:44 UTC
@derek-wilson Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I do feel the same with the gameplay being a bit limited because it had to be done to the rhythm - I couldn't figure out a good way to integrate the rhythm aspect more to it. I could think about putting in a sandbox mode where you can just play blackjack, and have each action have a different sound effect!
Derek Wilson
30. Apr 2018 · 07:00 UTC
Perhaps, the closer to hitting the button at the exact time, the "better" the card you get.

I'd say don't be afraid to change the rules of blackjack a bit to suit the game. Zach Gage has done well for himself on iOS by taking classic card games and giving the rules a good shake-up, I think you could do the same!
matsoj15
30. Apr 2018 · 07:05 UTC
Amazing! I really like this. Great music, combined theme is awesome
Corbak
30. Apr 2018 · 09:11 UTC
I liked the combination of genre and the concept idea of it. It is the first game to my knowledge on this LD that mixes cards and rythm. Quite nice approach !
gyfis
30. Apr 2018 · 09:21 UTC
Oh yeah, this is what I'm talking about! What a way to fulfill the theme! Love the idea, thanks a lot for the publishing on Kong as well - it's great to see LD games being published there!
thecrancher
03. May 2018 · 01:56 UTC
Hey there, I think the combination of ideas is a really good fit, and the music helps it all to come together as well. I really liked the choice of music it is chill and uplifting at the same time. I was really confused when it started it took me about 10 seconds of playing to actually understand it, but it was fun to play. Good job!
Random-storykeeper
03. May 2018 · 07:09 UTC
YO ACUITY you entered LD41? :smile:

This is an interesting idea you've got here - rhythm games and card games certainly don't seem "compatible" at first glance. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out how Blackjack even works (despite having played versions of Blackjack in other games), and even more embarrassingly, how your game works. :sweat_smile: Like, I had no idea you could miss some beats, as typical rhythm games will normally "penalize" you for doing so. Once I got it down, it was smooth sailing from here on out. :sunglasses:

![Blackjack Beats score 870.png](///raw/360/1/z/1499b.png)

(Although, I don't know if this is a good score or not, but it was a significant leap from my other lower scores. :joy: )

One issue I had with the game was the fact that it really just felt like Blackjack and not so much a rhythm game. That reason mostly does point to, as mentioned above, the fact that you don't get penalized for missing beats. It's also a little frustrating when the Z and X keys *sometimes* get mapped to the same function, but *sometimes* they don't. There were times when I wanted to keep playing my hand, but I ended up standing because I was using the X key to deal my cards at first. The rhythm part also didn't really feel all that much "rhythm" like - it was very even beats that I guess landed on the beats of the actual music, but they were so far few in between that it really just felt like I could press the Z and X keys almost whenever I wanted to and focus entirely on the card game without the rhythm game part affecting me at all.

That being said, the Blackjack part of the game was pretty well done. I like the design of the cards, the simplicity and pleasantness of the music. The sound effects (er - one sound effect?) were snappy and satisfying. And once I got into the rhythm of the game, it became fun to start "strategizing" my play. One aspect of the game I do like that does feel very "rhythm game" esque is when the music stops, the game also stops too. Overall, I think it was a great concept to explore, but could use more time for extra polish and figuring out how to "blend" the two genres together better. Well, that's what post-jam versions are for, eh? :wink:
🎤 Acuity
09. May 2018 · 22:24 UTC
@Random-storykeeper Hello, thanks for the detailed feedback! Yeah, this was just a very bare bones rhythm game (basically I wanted to make sure you could do something to a basic beat that syncs with a song). I thought about making a more complicated beatmap in the future, as well as maybe ideas on what to do with the rhythm to make it more interesting. I'll work on some post compo polish later, but haven't had much time recently - I still have to play and rate more games to get more ratings! I saw that you have an entry for LD 41, too - I'll check out your game later today!
cristiano.m.garcia
10. May 2018 · 01:04 UTC
Very interesting idea, congratulations!

I left my rating of your game and thanks for play our game, Witch's Escape.

I hope you continue with the project.
Talonos
11. May 2018 · 00:30 UTC
Cool idea--this definitely fits the theme! It seemed like the betting component didn't matter too much for your score? Also I didn't seem to be able to choose to double-down or split. I'd say you nailed the music! I'm curious what you used to make it? It was fun to jam to and I could easily feel the beat. Overall nice entry @Acuity!
🎤 Acuity
11. May 2018 · 00:54 UTC
@Talonos Thanks for the feedback! The betting component just determined whether or not you won back 20 chips or if you lost your bet of 10. And yea, I didn't have time to implement doubling or splitting (plus I wasn't sure about the layout of everything yet, whether or not I'd have enough space to have extra hands). I used FL Studio to make the music - I used to do One Hour Composition pretty regularly, so I'm used to writing songs under a time limit! I will upload the song to my soundcloud soon, for anyone interested in downloads.
DDRKirbyISQ
14. May 2018 · 01:11 UTC
My score was 1530!
🎤 Acuity
14. May 2018 · 07:01 UTC
@DDRKirbyISQ Whoa, that's pretty high! Thanks for trying out the game!
lightsoda
14. May 2018 · 21:40 UTC
Yeah it's a bit off beat for me, hard to keep tabs on playing black jack while keeping rhythm :smile: Interesting idea.
maysick
15. May 2018 · 01:04 UTC
So satisfying! The tempo is perfectly slow enough for me to handle. The idea is so simple but the implementation is perfect.